Clay Tablet - Louvre - AO29562 (cropped)

Kushim is the earliest known recorded name of a person in writing. The name "Kushim" is found on several

Uruk period The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC; also known as Protoliterate period) existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, after the Ubaid period and before the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after ...

(c. 3400–3000 BCE)

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets ( Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a sty ...

s used to record transactions of

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

. It is uncertain if the name refers to an individual, a generic title of an officeholder, or an institution.

Uruk period tablets

Writing in ancient Sumer was a time-consuming activity known to few. For this reason, writing was mainly used to keep necessary economic records.

Literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

Uruk Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...

was also likely limited at the time. A clay tablet detailing a trade transaction contains one of the first examples of rebus writing. It reads "29,086 measures

37 months Kushim." This may be interpreted as having been signed by "Kushim." , Kushim's name was known to appear in 18 separate clay tablets from the period. Another Uruk period clay tablet that featured names dating back to around 3100 BC includes the names of a slave owner (Gal-Sal) and Gal-Sal's two slaves (En-pap X and the woman Sukkalgir). This tablet was likely produced one or two generations after the Kushim Tablet.

Identity

Kushim is believed to have been either an individual or a generic title of an officeholder. The

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...

characters "KU" and "ŠIM" were not presented with much context, and therefore it is difficult to determine whether such sign combinations denote a person, the person's office, or an entire institution. Kushim was responsible for the production and storage of barley. Some of the tablets charge the distribution of barley to several officials as various debits, with the summation on the

reverse Reverse or reversing may refer to: Arts and media * ''Reverse'' (Eldritch album), 2001 * ''Reverse'' (2009 film), a Polish comedy-drama film * ''Reverse'' (2019 film), an Iranian crime-drama film * ''Reverse'' (Morandi album), 2005 * ''Reverse'' ...

as a single credit for the discharge of Kushim's liability. One relatively simple account shows the charging of various amounts of barley to three officials on the obverse, while Kushim was credited for the total amount distributed to the officials on the reverse. However, the reverse could also be interpreted as Kushim's account. Other tablets are more intricate, showing the input of various ingredients on the obverse (malt, hops, etc.), while showing different kinds of beer as output on the reverse side. One tablet shows Kushim providing 14,712 liters of barley to four officials, for which they were properly discharged.

References

{{reflist

External links

MS 1717: Beer production at the Inanna Temple in Uruk
in the

Schøyen Collection __NOTOC__ The Schøyen Collection is one of the largest private manuscript collections in the world, mostly located in Oslo and London. Formed in the 20th century by Martin Schøyen, it comprises manuscripts of global provenance, spanning 5,000 y ...

MSVO 3, 29
at the

Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) is an international digital library project aimed at putting text and images of an estimated 500,000 recovered cuneiform tablets created from between roughly 3350 BC and the end of the pre-Christian er ...

Tablets containing Kushim
at the

What was the first (known) maths mistake?
video by Matt Parker
A photograph of a tablet containing Kushim
Clay tablets Sumerian people History of accounting Uruk period

Uruk period tablets

Identity

See also

References

External links